Lawn Dogs (1997)

AKA: –
Directed by: John Duigan
Starring: Mischa Barton (Devon), Sam Rockwell (Trent), Christopher McDonald (Devon’s father), Kathleen Quinlan (Devon’s mother), Eric Mabius (Sean), David Barry Gray (Brett), Bruce McGill (Security guard), Angie Harmon (Pam), Beth Grant (Trent’s mother), Tom Aldredge (Trent’s father)
Country: USA; Effed Up American Films
Language: English (Optional Eng Subs)
Runtime: 01:40:45
Genres: Old-Young Relationships

Plot – Spoilers:
Young Devon who’s recently had a heart surgery moves into a gated community with her upwardly mobile parents. She has no interest in making new friends though her father hopes she could be a bridge for building contacts in the wealthy community there. Instead, Devon secretly befriends the trailer-trash Trent, who mows lawns and is amused by her overactive imagination.

Their friendship is based on several similarities. They are both outsiders – he more of an outlier and she a minor outcast. The two are also similar in being acutely conscious of the constraints in their lives – he’s poor, she a dependent kid – and so they accept authority most of the time and pretend to care about what people want out of them, but often end up doing exactly what they want to do.

The class and age biases are strong around them and so there’s a temporal inevitability to their friendship. But while it lasts, it’s beautiful and moved along by an uplifting dobro piece from guitarist Clem Clempson that nails the purity and freedom of their relationship.